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Calgary Municipal Politics

Which mayoral candidate do you intend to vote for in 2021?

  • Jeremy Farkas

    Votes: 3 5.1%
  • Jyoti Gondek

    Votes: 43 72.9%
  • Brad Field

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jan Damery

    Votes: 11 18.6%
  • Jeff Davison

    Votes: 2 3.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    59

Well, the one year budget adjustment got passed, I don't think many people were expecting it to be as high as it is. C'est la vie. One item I am curious about though, and have seen highlighted in several articles, is this:
"Council approved setting aside $11 million to buy land for an Indigenous gathering place, which would help meet the city's commitments in response to the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission."

anybody know about this project in more detail? $11 million will buy you a significant, redevelompent potential parcel of land in the Centre City, with current active and leased out tenants on it, as we recently saw in one thread:
 
Looking at the range of votes that were taken this week, we can start to see the dynamics at play in the new council:
  • Chu and McLean represent the far right, voting against almost everything, including things like traffic safety. Lots of 13-2 votes. Chabot's usually the first to join them if they get more than 2 votes.
  • Gondek, Walcott, Penner, and Carra seem to be furthest to the left (the only ones who voted against increasing the police budget)
  • Contrary to how he's been characterized as a right-winger, Terry Wong voted with the majority on almost everything. Seems like a solid centrist.
  • Sonya Sharp might be the most right-leaning centrist. She joined Chu, McLean, and Chabot in voting against the overall budget, expressing concerns about tax increases and overspending.
As an aside, I think it is ridiculous that the people who express the most opposition toward public spending are also the quickest to shovel more money into the City's largest budget item (policing). If you think the City needs to rein in spending, the place you begin is with the largest items.
 
I don't think anybody's said anything official about an indigenous gathering site. There was a Sprawl podcast episode about the gathering place a while ago. One key element was that they were looking for a relatively central location. I suspect that the aim is to make it somewhere accessible to nature, in something of a 'landmark' location. As I type this, I wonder if the site might be the flood-damaged CBE building site in the East Village; it's completing the demolition (or at least the asbestos removal; I can't remember which), it's a reasonable size, it's across the street from the Fort Calgary parkland, it's about as close as you can get to the confluence of the Bow and Elbow which have a history as a traditional gathering place.
 
https://www.sprawlcalgary.com/sprawlcast-why-calgary-needs-an-indigenous-gathering-place

Hmm very interesting for sure and I hope it comes to fruition. That EV site would be ok, but honestly maybe they should just scrap Fort Calgary entirely. Move it's contents of value to the renovated Glenbow or something, and build this there. Would probably have the greatest impact for what they're aiming to achieve and doesn't particularly displace the existing uses of the site.

Another site that comes to mind would be the Highland Park Valley. It doesn't quite meet all the criteria they're looking for though, but could be a cool spot to also incorporate some ecological restoration or "reconciliation" as well, if that can at all be successfully tied into this need for the Indigenous Gathering Place and the greater pursuit of TRC.
 
On city land, at the confluence may be possible.

On the other hand, it may not be optimal due to the preeminent importance of the site to some. Many questions to answer.

Good to Gondek on backing down from the weird position that the project should only be funded in connection with land sales elsewhere.
 
I don't think anybody's said anything official about an indigenous gathering site. There was a Sprawl podcast episode about the gathering place a while ago. One key element was that they were looking for a relatively central location. I suspect that the aim is to make it somewhere accessible to nature, in something of a 'landmark' location. As I type this, I wonder if the site might be the flood-damaged CBE building site in the East Village; it's completing the demolition (or at least the asbestos removal; I can't remember which), it's a reasonable size, it's across the street from the Fort Calgary parkland, it's about as close as you can get to the confluence of the Bow and Elbow which have a history as a traditional gathering place.
That location is also where, according to their traditional beliefs, god created humankind 10,000 years ago. It would make perfect sense, and an amazing cultural opportunity.
 
https://www.sprawlcalgary.com/sprawlcast-why-calgary-needs-an-indigenous-gathering-place

Hmm very interesting for sure and I hope it comes to fruition. That EV site would be ok, but honestly maybe they should just scrap Fort Calgary entirely. Move it's contents of value to the renovated Glenbow or something, and build this there. Would probably have the greatest impact for what they're aiming to achieve and doesn't particularly displace the existing uses of the site.

Another site that comes to mind would be the Highland Park Valley. It doesn't quite meet all the criteria they're looking for though, but could be a cool spot to also incorporate some ecological restoration or "reconciliation" as well, if that can at all be successfully tied into this need for the Indigenous Gathering Place and the greater pursuit of TRC.
The Fort Calgary museum is already slated for demolition and reconstruction/expansion, with half of the space dedicated to the indigenous side of the story, as well as indigenous history.
 
The Fort Calgary museum is already slated for demolition and reconstruction/expansion, with half of the space dedicated to the indigenous side of the story, as well as indigenous history.
I still think the whole Fort Calgary property should just be redesigned around local First Nations culture/history with the Fort itself (barely a footnote in history with no surviving buildings) playing a minor role.
 
I still think the whole Fort Calgary property should just be redesigned around local First Nations culture/history with the Fort itself (barely a footnote in history with no surviving buildings) playing a minor role.
Totally agree, Fort Calgary is one of the least used 'cultural sites' in the city. The cite is perfect for what they're going for and would be much better used.
 
I still think the whole Fort Calgary property should just be redesigned around local First Nations culture/history with the Fort itself (barely a footnote in history with no surviving buildings) playing a minor role.
I agree, though I don’t think that will happen. At least in the new museum, the second floor (indigenous section) will have an overhang overlooking the forks.

To the point about Fort Calgary being under-used/unused, I think the reconstruction of the museum will play a significant role in changing that. It is a hideous and uninviting shithole currently. The new structure will be far more attractive to onlookers which could draw people in. Especially with the increasing amount of walking and bus tours going through the area due to the ongoing intensification of the East Village, Bridgeland, and Inglewood. As well as the overall increase in the perceptions of downtown as a place for locals to visit rather than avoid, as had been the case for most of our history.
 
I'm actually really impressed, Jeremy Farkas is planning to run (marathon style) the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a hiking trail that runs from Canada to Mexico. In the long distance hiking world this is like climbing Everest without oxygen, so props to Farkas 👏 so far I think I like him better as a non-politician

CTV News Calgary: Former Calgary councillor Farkas to run from Mexico to Canada for Big Brothers Big Sisters | CTV News.
 
Anybody else feel this story is far from over?.....
Wow - that is really bad. Looks like there are two approved DPs pending appeal for the development of two single family homes with one secondary upstairs suite.

This is the property in question - a 1970s fourplex. It's interesting to go back and read through this excerpt from his May 2019 newsletter, noting that Carra was a member of the SPC on Planning and Urban Development:
On April 3, 2019, Council’s Standing Policy Committee for Planning and Urban Development convened for its monthly meeting and as its second order of business unanimously recommended that Council approve a path forward for legalizing suites in semi-detached houses throughout Calgary. Later that day I found myself sitting in my home office - a place where, prior to becoming a City Councillor in 2010, I did most of my academic, community, and professional work as a city-builder - reflecting on the momentous change this represents and the long journey it has taken to get within reach of this laudable goal.

Eighteen years ago, sitting in that office, looking out on the street in a similar state of very early springtime, I penned a letter in my capacity as Redevelopment Chair of the Inglewood Community Association to Calgary City Council. I was attempting to intervene on behalf of a landowner and their tenants in Inglewood who were facing eviction because the City was acting against the illegal condition within their building.

The building in question, a ubiquitous “seventies special,” had been built in the mid-1970s as a fourplex and then, years later, had been zoned & redefined within the 1980 land use bylaw as a semidetached (two units). The owner had bought it as a fourplex unaware that it was an illegal condition, and his tenants, long-standing and contributing members of the community, had been living there for years. It came to pass that a neighbour of their’s had a dog that was left outside day and night and barked constantly. When they complained to bylaw about this unacceptable situation, the neighbour with the dog retaliated by calling in the illegal fourplex condition of their living arrangement. I don’t know how the dog situation ultimately resolved itself, but the fact that despite my attempt to intervene the four units were reduced to two units and two members of our community were put out on the street became an early point of dissatisfaction for me that, combined with an accumulation of successive dissatisfactions, ultimately lead me to create the Great Neighbourhoods platform and seek office as Ward 9’s City Councillor.

Around nine years later, early in my time as Ward 9 City Councillor, and on account of our brand new Mayor Nenshi having made suites a significant civic issue, we were able to address a big chunk of the problem by allowing secondary suites in all R-designated land uses (with the exception of R-1 properties - we wouldn’t solve that issue until 2018). At that time I thought that we had finally solved the semi-detached problem that had weighed heavy on my mind since my Inglewood experience many years before.
 
Saw this comment about recall elections from Jeff Davison on LinkedIn the other day. Curious what you all think of it.
1657690903554.png


Do you think there will be a serious, organized recall effort for anyone?
 

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